Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien works with Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade

On the afternoon of November 12, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien received Mr. Peter Shanel Agovaka, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of the Solomon Islands, along with his working delegation.

The meeting took place one day after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of the Solomon Islands, on behalf of their respective governments, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on a bilateral cooperation framework in Hanoi. This document opens a new phase of cooperation between Vietnam and the Solomon Islands in various fields, including economics, trade, agriculture, fisheries, renewable energy, infrastructure, education, aviation, marine environmental protection, and climate change response.

At the reception, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized that based on the newly signed cooperation framework, Viet Nam wishes to expand cooperation with the Solomon Islands in many areas, particularly sustainable agriculture, fisheries, marine environmental protection, mining, and climate change response.

The Deputy Minister proposed a series of specific cooperation directions, including the transfer of climate-adaptive cultivation and livestock techniques, the development of organic agriculture models, small-scale agricultural processing, and joint research on drought-tolerant and saline-tolerant crop varieties and smart farming. In the fisheries sector, Viet Nam is ready to support the Solomon Islands with techniques for farming seaweed, shrimp, and freshwater seafood, as well as sharing experiences in resource management, seafood traceability, and post-harvest processing infrastructure development.

Regarding marine environmental protection, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien suggested that the two sides cooperate on coral reef and mangrove conservation projects, share experiences in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), and establish a network for monitoring and warning against pollution, oil spills, and ocean plastic waste. Additionally, the two sides can cooperate in sustainable mining, waste treatment technology transfer, environmental restoration after mining, and sharing state management experiences in licensing and monitoring mineral activities. Vietnam also desires to work with the Solomon Islands to research climate risk mapping and deploy models for preventing coastal erosion and sea-level rise.

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien stated that Viet Nam is ready to organize a Viet Nam-Solomon Islands Agricultural Forum to connect businesses from both sides, develop agricultural value chains, and promote investment in potential areas.

In response, Minister Peter Shanel Agovaka highly valued Viet Nam's role in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly its achievements in green agriculture development, climate change adaptation, and marine resource management. He affirmed that the Solomon Islands is ready to coordinate with Viet Nam to implement specific cooperation projects in agriculture, fisheries, and marine environmental protection, thereby contributing to promoting friendship between the two nations. He affirmed that the Solomon Islands would actively coordinate to implement substantive cooperation activities in the coming time, especially in human resource training, agricultural development, and marine environmental protection.

Linh Linh